April 8, 2025 • 51 mins
Does yoga have a place in a CrossFit athlete's training regimen? In this eye-opening conversation with yoga instructor Kristen Fazio @kristenfazyoga, we explore the surprising synergy between these seemingly opposite disciplines.
Kristen, who brings an athletic approach to her yoga instruction, explains why mobility matters tremendously for CrossFit performance. Most athletes struggle with depth in squats, overhead positions, and various other foundational movements—not because they lack strength, but because they lack the necessary mobility in their joints. Through her years of teaching yoga to athletes, she's witnessed remarkable improvements in performance, recovery, and injury prevention.
The conversation reveals how yoga offers far more than just flexibility. We discuss how practicing balance poses develops crucial stabilizer muscles that protect joints during heavy lifts. We explore how controlled breathing techniques translate directly to maintaining composure during challenging workouts. And perhaps most surprisingly, we uncover how yoga's mindfulness aspects create mental resilience that carries from the mat to the competition floor.
"CrossFit training itself is not conducive to mobility," Fazio points out, highlighting why supplemental mobility work is essential for long-term athletic development.
For those intimidated by yoga's spiritual reputation or concerned about "not being flexible enough," Fazio offers practical advice on getting started, finding the right style of yoga for your needs, and integrating it effectively into a strength-focused schedule. Whether you're looking to improve performance, recover better between workouts, or ensure longevity in your fitness journey, this conversation will transform how you think about complementary training.
Ready to roll out your mat? Listen now and discover why some of the most competitive CrossFit athletes are turning to yoga as their secret performance enhancer.
#YogaForAthletes #CrossFitYoga #MindBodyConnection #MobilityTraining #YogaCommunity #YogaAndFitness
#BotoxAndBurpees @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sam Rhee (00:04):
Welcome to another episode of Botox and Purpues.
I have with me today my veryspecial guest, kristen Fazio.
I've known her for years.
She is an expert on yoga andhas been a longtime yoga
instructor for me and for many,many others, and our topic today
is really about is yogaappropriate for CrossFit
(00:24):
athletes?
I mean, we're going to talkabout all athletes that I think
(00:48):
a lot of boxes have tried toincorporate yoga, or a lot of
athletes have tried to, and sowe want to just take a little
bit of a dive, pick Kristen'sbrain, her experience, her
thoughts about how this might ormight not help an athlete.
So welcome, kristen.
Thank you so much for doingthis.
Kristen Fazio (01:04):
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Sam Rhee (01:06):
I'm so glad.
So talk to me a little bitabout yourself, Kristen.
How did you get into yoga?
What's your experience beenlike?
What is it that yoga has donefor you?
Kristen Fazio (01:18):
What has it not done for me?
It's the better question to ask.
We'll be here for a shortertime if I answer it in that way.
But I started yoga practicing aregular practice I would say
about 16 years ago, right aftermy third daughter was born.
My third child was born, I justwanted something physical and I
was not a gym girl, I wasn'tinto treadmills and that kind of
thing.
And a friend of mine asked me tocome to a yoga class with her.
(01:40):
I went and it was really.
It was like love at first sight.
I just I fell in love with thepractice.
I started practicing regularly.
It just kind of answered a lotof the things that I needed in
my life physically.
And then, you know, theemotional part came into it,
which that happens later.
And then, yeah, about 10 yearsinto my practice, my husband
suggested like why don't youpursue becoming a teacher
(02:03):
yourself?
And I was really intimidated bythat idea.
I just thought like I couldnever know enough to be the
teacher.
I still am very humbled aboutthe idea of being a teacher
because there's I'll never knoweverything right and I and
that's part of the process.
But it's been great and I loveeverything about it.
Sam Rhee (02:22):
What do you specialize in?
I know I've taken your classes,I've also taken lessons with
you, and so what is it that youwould characterize your approach
in terms of teaching andcoaching, because I think every
yoga instructor is a little bitdifferent.
So what would you describe yourapproach to be?
Kristen Fazio (02:40):
Yeah, every teacher is really really unique
and different and everybodybrings their own style to the
practice.
I would kind of define my styleas more of an athletic approach
to yoga.
I'm very into anatomy and theway the body moves.
I'm into alignment so makingsure that you're safely in the
(03:02):
poses.
So making sure that you'resafely in the poses.
And then I'm really intobuilding strength so that when
you're in the poses you're inthem safely and securely.
You're not just moving intoyour flexibility but you're
really stabilizing your muscles.
So I would say I teach withmore of an energetic approach.
My class is definitely targetedto people that are more into
the athletic endeavor of yoga,but I also incorporate, you know
(03:23):
, all of the really nice thingsabout yoga.
Like there's always breath workinvolved in my classes.
I'll sometimes incorporate adharma talk, which is just, like
you know, more of aphilosophical point of view to
weave that through the practice.
So you kind of get a little ofeverything, but it's definitely
more, I would say, athleticfocused and where do you?
Sam Rhee (03:41):
where do you coach?
Kristen Fazio (03:42):
so I teach currently out of a couple
studios in Bergen County, NewJersey.
I teach at a really greatlittle boutique studio called
Village Yoga in.
Glen Rock.
I teach at a smaller chain yogaplace called Power Flow Yoga in
Clifton and then I teach at amore popular they're throwing
all over the place a placecalled Real Hot Yoga in
(04:03):
Ridgewood.
And then I teach at a morepopular they're growing all over
the place a place called RealHot Yoga in Ridgewood.
And they all you know arecompletely different studios,
completely different clientele,and I think that's what I love
about it.
Sam Rhee (04:11):
You're really busy.
You do a lot, yeah, and thenyou also teach privately as well
.
Kristen Fazio (04:15):
I teach private stuff and I do.
I teach mat pilates now and Ialso teach a mobility and
stretch class as well.
Sam Rhee (04:25):
Yes, which has been excellent.
I've taken that one, so yourInstagram handle is
KristenFAZYoga.
That's right, yes, yeah, and sothat's where people can reach
you.
Yeah, let's talk a little bitabout yoga itself, because I
have done yoga for years.
I don't even know what yoga wasuntil I started researching it
for this episode, and so let mesay what the definition is and
(04:46):
then you can sort of expound onit.
I've read it as the ancientIndian practice that combines
physical postures, which areasanas.
I was like, oh, that's whatasanas are physical postures,
asanas, yeah, asanas.
See, I don't even know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it'sbreathing techniques, which is
pranayama, and then meditationor relaxation, which is what you
mentioned.
Dhyanas, dhyanas, dhyanas.
(05:09):
How do you pronounce that?
Kristen Fazio (05:10):
Wait, which one.
Sam Rhee (05:11):
I don't know Dharmas, the dharmas.
Kristen Fazio (05:14):
Yeah, and that's just more of like what the
teacher will kind of weave, likethe story they'll tell.
You know, maybe they'll read apoem in the beginning of the
class or something like that.
Sam Rhee (05:21):
So all three of those things physical, breathing and
meditation is that mind, body,spirit, sort of melding, right?
Kristen Fazio (05:29):
And that's, you just hit on it.
So that's what yoga means.
Literally translates to theword to yoke.
To yoke, which is To yoke themind and the body together, oh,
to pull it all together.
Sam Rhee (05:39):
Yeah, mm-hmm, ah, okay , so, okay.
So if you had never done yoga,do you need to know these things
in order to actually do it?
No, so how do you actuallyteach these practices in the
action or movement of doing thisOf a class?
Kristen Fazio (05:56):
Yeah, so every class and what defines yoga as
yoga other than just like aworkout moving through poses is
the breath work.
So every yoga class starts withsome type of seated or laying
down breath work, where you linkthe mind and the breath
together, the body and thebreath together, and then you
(06:17):
move on to like incorporatingthe breath to the movement.
So in vinyasa style, we'll getinto that.
That's what I teach.
Every single movement has acorresponding breath that goes
with it, so it's either aninhale or an exhale, and that is
how you weave the breath intothe physical practice.
Sam Rhee (06:35):
Which is hard, because when I first started and when I
still do it, I'm still like,yes, like breathing.
Kristen Fazio (06:40):
That is the part that definitely takes the
longest to cultivate.
But it's when you get that,that then the practice.
That's when the light bulb goesoff and you're like, oh, I
understand now.
Sam Rhee (06:50):
You know it's funny because this is from India and I
just visited India for thefirst time in my entire life and
I didn't realize, like, forexample, the namaste, that is a
greeting that everybody does toeach other.
It's not.
I mean, some of this is rootedin Hindu tradition, but it's not
religious.
Kristen Fazio (07:08):
It's not.
Sam Rhee (07:09):
It's like saying hello or aloha or mahalo, like these
are.
And so yoga itself is not.
It's spiritual, but it's notround like cause.
Some people worry like am Igoing to become some crazy, like
culty person?
And it's not.
It's just.
You know, there's nothingthat's incompatible with
(07:30):
spirituality and learning how tobreathe and like focus on your
mind and body.
That's any different foranybody.
100% yeah.
Kristen Fazio (07:40):
I mean, I have been asked that before.
You know, is it considered, youknow, a religious practice?
And I guess you could look atit from that perspective.
But I look at it as it's aspiritual practice and really,
and when you think of whateverdivine spirit you're practicing
toward, it could be yourself.
I mean it's yourself really.
It's becoming quiet and gettingto know yourself.
Sam Rhee (08:00):
Right, so every time I say namaste, now it doesn't it.
I didn't understand it until Iwent to India and I and I saw
everyone doing it, and then Iunderstood that this was uh, no,
actually the light in me honorsthe light in you.
Kristen Fazio (08:13):
There you go.
Sam Rhee (08:14):
Uh, nice, that's right , and you say that also actually
, um, when you open clothes.
Uh, yes, and so that is, uh,and it's actually a really nice
way of saying hello to somebody.
It's beautiful, I love it.
Yeah, um, okay.
So let's talk about thedifferent styles.
So you mentioned vinyasa, whichis like what is this?
Flow, flow yoga.
Kristen Fazio (08:34):
Yeah, so the word vinyasa literally translates,
loosely translates to um, toplace mindfully.
Sam Rhee (08:40):
Okay.
Kristen Fazio (08:41):
So, um, as I just mentioned before, in a vinyasa
style class, every movement hasa corresponding inhale or an
exhale.
You typically like rise up onthe inhale, you ground down on
an exhale, you effort on theexhale, you lengthen on an
inhale, or you deepen yourstretch on the exhale, you
lengthen out on the inhale, andthen what happens is you start
(09:05):
slow, you start on the ground,you start to link those
movements and breaths together,and then the poses get bigger, a
little more robust, a littlemore challenging, and the
challenge of yoga, then, is tomaintain that slow breath in and
out through the nose for theduration of the practice.
Sam Rhee (09:19):
Right.
So if you're signing up for avinyasa class or a flow class,
that's what you can expect forthat.
Kristen Fazio (09:24):
Yeah, it starts slow, it starts to get and then
it gets a little more rigorousand, yeah, it's a good workout.
Sam Rhee (09:28):
So what's the difference between, say, vinyasa
and a power yoga workout?
Kristen Fazio (09:32):
They're pretty similar.
They're pretty similar.
It's really more theinterpretation of the teacher.
I would say my vinyasa flowclasses are basically power
classes.
Sam Rhee (09:40):
So they're very dynamic to strengthen the legs.
Kristen Fazio (09:43):
You might incorporate extra chaturangas,
which are basically yogapush-ups.
(10:05):
So yeah, there's definitely anelement of a physical, more
physical element to that kind ofstyle of yoga.
Sam Rhee (10:12):
I saw other types of yoga, but I don't see very many
places that offer these so muchlike a kundalini yoga, which is
some sort of energy at the baseof your spine type of it's
really interesting.
Kristen Fazio (10:24):
You wear all white.
It's a totally different formof yoga.
I mean it's really fascinatingbut it's not quite as popular.
I mean, all of the places thatare popping up now are more the
energy like the vinyasa approach, the more power based.
But there is, there's Kundalini, there's Iyengar, there's
(10:46):
Ashtanga I mean the list goes on.
Know, we talked about earlierit's.
There's probably over a dozenstyles of yoga and you know
people are adding more.
I just actually, before I camehere, I took a yoga for athletes
.
You know, like I don't evenknow if there's a name for it,
but you know there's.
Everybody kind of puts theirlittle curve on there got it.
Sam Rhee (11:01):
And then the one that I'm most familiar with is adding
heat like hot yoga.
So talk to me about hot yogaand how that is different and
how that can help in terms ofyour yoga practice.
Kristen Fazio (11:13):
Yeah, so a lot of these vinyasa style or power
style classes are incorporatingheat.
It's hot yoga Room is typicallyheated to about 85 to 100
degrees, depending on the studio.
And depending on the studio,some of them incorporate
humidity, some of them don't.
The theory behind it is thatthe heat and humidity is
(11:36):
supposed to open and lengthenyour muscles.
You get into the workout alittle bit quicker that way.
You're able to get into thestretches a little more safely.
It's great for detoxifying that, you know.
Opening the pores, gettingthrough that lymphatic drainage.
All of that stuff is supposedto be really beneficial.
It comes with its risks.
You want me to touch on that alittle bit.
(11:58):
You know, when you arehypermobile, when the body is
really supple from the heatespecially call it 30 minutes
into the practice, 40 minutesinto the practice, after you've
been moving for a whilesometimes you are not relying on
your strength and you'rerelying on that, getting into
those deep, deep stretches, andsometimes that can be an issue
because you're then stretchinginto the joint area a little too
(12:20):
much.
Right, you're collapsing intoyour flexibility and when the
body gets tired, that's whathappens, right, you're not using
your strength.
So I personally, when I'mteaching, I don't love the room
to be like insanely hot.
I just don't see the point init.
I like my students to get alittle sweat, I like them to
feel really comfortable andlengthened, but around 95
(12:40):
degrees is where I'm turning offthe heat.
Sam Rhee (12:42):
That's so funny because that does sound actually
like CrossFit, when you're, say, deep into a workout and you're
doing a lot of pull-ups orsomething and you stop using
your muscles to control yourmovement and instead you're
relying on your connectivetissue and your tendons and
ligaments to sort of take thatforce.
Kristen Fazio (12:58):
And it's dangerous.
Sam Rhee (12:59):
That's where people get into problems 100% and so
it's when you're not sort offocused on being mindful with
what you're doing in terms ofmuscular control.
Kristen Fazio (13:09):
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (13:10):
I love hot yoga because it does make me feel you
know, yeah, cleansed.
Or you know afterwards I dosweat a ton, so it's like I do
too.
Yeah, so it's crazy, like howmuch I sweat and how much I have
to rehydrate afterwards.
Yeah, so it's crazy, like howhow much I sweat and how much I
have to rehydrate afterwardsyeah, but I would say that it
does really help you get intopositions better.
(13:31):
It takes a little while to getused to it.
I mean, I remember the firstcouple of times I almost was
like oh, I need to run out ofthe room, it's so hot.
But I just kind of sat thereand you kind of get used to it
after a while.
Kristen Fazio (13:41):
You do, you do and you build up a tolerance.
You know you have a little more, you know tolerance to it.
You definitely your thresholdgoes a little bit higher.
Sam Rhee (13:49):
So let's talk a little bit about what benefits yoga
may have for athletes.
The first one is reallymobility and flexibility.
So a lot of CrossFit workoutsdo require, you know, squat
positions that you know requiremobility.
Overhead squats presses, youknow.
So have you seen in yourathletes that you've coached or
(14:14):
taught yoga to that thatmobility and flexibility benefit
from yoga?
Kristen Fazio (14:20):
Yeah, it's funny that you say this.
The other day I was talking toone of my students who's been
coming to my class regularly Hisname is Peter for about the
past year and a half and he's abig CrossFit guy and, in
anticipation of thisconversation with you, I just
kind of pulled him aside andasked him where he sees the
benefits and he said his abilityto get deep in the squats,
because you want to get below 90degrees, you want your hips low
(14:42):
, so then you can thrust up.
He said his hips, his knees,his ankles, which is something
you don't really think aboutquite as much, but you need his
wrists and his shoulders.
He's like it has made all of thedifference.
So he notices that improvementfrom doing yoga for about a year
and a half.
Sam Rhee (15:02):
He said he noticed it within the first few months.
Yeah, I think that's true,because so much.
I mean, we'll do maybe five to10 minutes of stretching in a
class before we actually workout, and I did it today as a
coach, and I know it's cold,it's like 7 am, but when you put
someone into a pigeon pose andthey can't even move like at all
in that like you can see howinflexible um you know, I mean
(15:28):
crossfit training itself is notconducive to mobility.
Kristen Fazio (15:32):
You, you have to bring your own level of mobility
into it, right, it's not goingto help you become more mobile
or more flexible and you benefitfrom being more stable in your
joints, right, because you'rethrusting and then you're
holding these, that's so youhave to be careful, you know, of
being hypermobile in the jointsbut finding the mobility in the
other areas, right to depth,but at least you're not going to
(16:07):
push yourself out of position.
Sam Rhee (16:08):
And my argument to that is first of all, what's the
point of doing a quarter squatif that's safe?
Like that's unhelpful for anyathlete.
Like you need to developflexibility and mobility so that
you can do fuller range ofmotions more safely.
Kristen Fazio (16:24):
And the body is designed to be able to do those
poses.
It's just that over time, welose that mobility and that
flexibility, and so really, whatyoga is doing is hopefully
bringing you back to your setpoint, right Like bringing you
back to the space where yourbody was designed to be.
It's not creating hypermobilityit shouldn't.
If it's done correctly, it'sreally just bringing you to that
(16:45):
space where you're supposed tobe.
Sam Rhee (16:48):
The body is designed to move that way.
When we were five years old andwe could sit, there and squat
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Recovery and injury prevention.
So how can yoga help us interms of movement, blood flow,
when we're not doing CrossFitworkouts but we're doing yoga
workouts instead in terms ofaiding us in terms of that
(17:10):
post-workout recovery?
Kristen Fazio (17:13):
Yeah.
So you know all of thatstretching that you're doing is
bringing fresh oxygenated bloodinto those muscles, into those
joint areas, and that's huge.
I mean, we're learning so muchabout inflammation and then you
know, getting rid ofinflammation and flushing out
that area.
So bringing the blood intothose areas to help promote
healing is great.
(17:33):
You know it's the sweating, youknow help get rid of all that
metabolic waste that you've gotin your body.
Sam Rhee (17:43):
I think the breathing can help a lot because that
really activates theparasympathetics.
So we're like all adrenalineduring our crossfit workouts.
Kristen Fazio (17:51):
You are fight or flight, right?
Sam Rhee (17:52):
Yes, but then when you have to force yourself to
breathe slowly, to like controlthat heart rate by breathing
slower, like that makes a bigdifference in terms of sort of
balancing that mental state Iwould say 100%.
Kristen Fazio (18:05):
That's funny.
The guy, Peter, that I wastalking to mentioned that too as
being a really big part of itwhich you don't really think of.
You think of the physicalaspect, but there is this idea
that you're constantly right inthat sympathetic nervous state
which over time.
It's not healthy to never comeout of that.
It's funny.
(18:25):
I recently started doingPilates and it's hard Reformer.
Pilates is really, reallychallenging and I got really
into it for the first few weeksand I wasn't going to my doing
my regular yoga practice quiteas much.
And it's funny after like thesecond week of maybe only
practicing once, of practicingyoga once a week, I kind of was
like something's going on withme and I feel a little off and
(18:47):
that's what it was.
I realized I wasn't gettinginto that parasympathetic
nervous state like nervousrelease.
I was just constantly in thattriggered state and that's
something that yoga brings in.
It helps your body relax.
It's so important for healing.
There's so many studies thatsay how beneficial it is for
(19:08):
promoting muscle recovery andeverything else.
So it is something that I wouldthink if you don't have it
regularly in your life, youdon't really realize that it's
missing.
But then when you start toincorporate in your life and you
take it away, then you start torealize oh wait, this is
something that I really, reallyneed.
Sam Rhee (19:26):
I really believe that, especially because I've seen
some high-level CrossFitathletes who actually were so
adrenaline depleted.
They actually measured it ontheir physiologic test and they
actually were like oh, you gotto actually change things up a
little bit, yeah, yeah, and theyactually were like oh, you got
to actually change things up alittle bit, yeah, yeah.
And that's something that, likeyou said, you don't even notice
it until you actually take thattime to address it.
(19:46):
Balance and core strength thisis again balance is one of the,
I think, things we never test inCrossFit Like we do for, you
know, pistols, like one-leggedsquats and some other things,
like we do for pistols, likeone-legged squats and some other
things.
But I remember in yoga classesdoing tree position or any of
(20:09):
these other poses, theseone-legged poses, and you see
how amazing these people who Imean when I first came in and I
was snobby, I was like, oh, theydon't look so fit.
And I'm like, oh my God, theirbalance and their coordination
is out of control.
They don't look so fit.
And I'm like oh my God, theirbalance and their coordination
is out of control.
Speak a little bit about howmuch balance is required for
many of these yoga positions.
Kristen Fazio (20:27):
Well, I first want to just say that I think
balance is really underrated and, as far as longevity goes,
being able to balance iseverything right.
You hear about somebodyslipping, falling, breaking a
hip and then never the sameagain.
So if you, you know if you'recoming for one thing, for yoga
most people wouldn't say balance, but I think it's one of the
most important factors learninghow to hold your body weight up
(20:49):
on one, one leg or whatever.
What was the question?
Sam Rhee (20:52):
So yeah, so what you know poses or other movements in
yoga can help us in terms ofmaintaining that balance.
I mean, and how do you practicethat?
Like I, when I do tree, like Ican barely like stand with my
one foot on top of my otherright, right much less stick
that foot out to a side.
Kristen Fazio (21:13):
Yes, so part of it is is training towards that
right.
Like all balancing posesrequire core strength.
They all require abductormuscle strength.
I mean, those are the like, thesmaller stabilizing muscles
like that in CrossFit you'reprobably not focusing on quite
as much.
You're working with largermuscle groups.
In yoga you do kind of refineand work into those smaller
(21:34):
muscles supporting muscle groups.
So that's like your foundationand you might do 20 poses
leading up to a balance pose.
That will help to get you thento be able to balance the way
you need to be.
A lot of it is being able tocalm the mind and focus on the
breath.
I once had a teacher say, whenwe were struggling to balance in
a really challenging pose, hejust said quiet the mind and for
(21:57):
some reason that clicked withme and I was just like wow,
because what happens when we'rein balancing poses is we forget
to breathe.
And if you can remind yourselfjust to slow down and breathe,
it really it's all mental.
It's really all mental.
Sam Rhee (22:21):
I think it resonates with me in terms of longevity
and, you know, prediction interms of how long you can live
is very, very stronglycorrelated with your ability to
balance.
And they have tested andthere's a very simple test where
you just stand on one leg, onefoot, and you see how long you
can balance for and that's avery strong predictive value for
, you know, future injury andrisk, like how long you can do
it for.
And so the fact that all thosestabilizer muscles, the fact
(22:44):
that you have the kinestheticsense of being able to control
your body regardless of whatit's doing, that is the part I
really also love about yoga interms of complementary to
CrossFit.
Those stabilizer muscles maynot be necessarily as important
when you're, like you said,focusing on large muscles, but
(23:05):
when you are lifting a heavyweight, all those stabilizer
muscles, when you're kind ofgetting a little wiggly or
jiggly, unstable, that's what'sgoing to save you from risk of
serious injury 100%, yeah, andjust that.
Kristen Fazio (23:20):
back to what you're saying about those little
stabilizers you know theproprioception in your feet are
really important.
You know some of your listenersmight not know this, but you
practice yoga barefoot, with nosocks on or anything like that,
and just a thin mat underneathyou, and just that.
You know we really don't takein this Western culture of ours.
We don't take off our shoesoften.
We're walking in shoes on pavedsurfaces constantly.
(23:40):
So this idea of your footgetting you know used to
stabilizing in an unstablesituation is really, really
important.
Sam Rhee (23:48):
So true, breath work.
So this is what we talked abouta little bit about breath
awareness, lung capacity.
This is one of the hardestthings and I didn't even realize
this, probably until I don'tknow, maybe like six months or
almost a year that, oh wait,it's not about holding these
poses, it's about breathingthrough these poses, hello.
So how do you help people dothat, as they're doing this?
Kristen Fazio (24:12):
So that is the part of the yoga that I think
takes the longest to cultivate.
Anybody can put themselves in,you know, a warrior two pose and
make it look pretty good, rightit's.
Can you hold a warrior two poseand make it look pretty good,
right it's.
Can you hold a warrior two andthen breathe in it?
And, really, you know, thenmove from that to another pose
that's challenging and continueto breathe.
So you start with that.
Like I said, you start seatedor laying down and you cultivate
(24:33):
the breath there.
You laid the base for that andthen you know, the teacher will
take you through smaller poseswhere you're on the ground,
where you're closer to theground, where you're not
focusing on balance or anythingelse, and you're then starting
to move into the breath workthere, so something like cow-cat
or you know, spinal flexion andextension, and you incorporate
the breath there and then theposes get bigger and the breath
(24:58):
continues through those posesand a good teacher will remind
you in these poses to breathe,because sometimes you need the
reminder, sometimes I forget,you know, like, if it's a really
challenging pose, okay, I'mdoing this right, I'm doing this
right, but am I breathing?
Because if you're not breathing, then it ain't yoga.
Now that it, it's the purposethat's exactly right, yeah, um.
Sam Rhee (25:18):
So what?
Uh?
What are the challenges orrisks?
So nothing is without risk.
Right, you could run and youcould hurt yourself.
So if we were talking about,like, how awesome running is,
like there could be 50 peopleout there, like I got injured
running, yeah, like.
So what are the sort of thingsthat, if you do yoga regularly,
(25:40):
you have to watch out for?
What are the common types ofrisks that you might encounter
in terms of if you do yoga a lot?
Kristen Fazio (25:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'm a big believer in everything you
know in moderation, so we'lltouch on that later.
But you can absolutelyoverstretch.
You can absolutely bestretching in the wrong part of
the muscle, right?
I hear a lot of times, likewhen we're I'll use hamstrings
(26:07):
as an example people gettingwhat's called yoga butt, which
is this strain right where thehamstring attaches, right
beneath the glute.
It's referred to as yoga buttbecause when people are doing
tons of forward folds orstretching their hamstrings,
instead of letting the muscle,the stretch, focus in the belly
of the hamstring, they'restretching at the attachment
point and over time, over andover and over.
We know repetitive movement canbe injurious.
So it's really important twothings A to listen to your body
(26:31):
and I know that sounds like alittle cliche, but it is so
important to be able to set yourego aside is a huge thing in
yoga.
You know the thing about that'sdifferent about yoga and
CrossFit is yoga is a veryindividual endeavor.
Yeah, you're on your mat andyou really are instructed to,
and can be hard.
But to just block out everybodyelse in the room and just make
(26:52):
the practice about you, yeah,what happens is, you know, you
see the person to the right ofyou like getting into a full
split and you're like let me seeif I can do that.
Exactly so.
That is a risk that people haveto kind of avoid, the
temptation I fall prey to it.
Often I'm like, oh, I used tobe able to do this, why can't I
do this today?
So, you know, listening to yourbody, setting your ego aside
(27:13):
and finding an instructor thatworks with you.
You know, some instructorsmight push you to do something
that you're not comfortable with.
You're the only one who knowswhat it feels like in your body.
You're the only one that knowsthe difference between like oh,
that's a good stretch, and thatstretch feels really weird, or
my knee can't go into thatposition and that's okay.
You just have to be able toreally, you know, listen to what
your body is telling you.
Sam Rhee (27:34):
I think it's helpful if you're first starting to have
some private instruction.
Honestly, like I remember whenI first started it was during
COVID and so I would just go onto YouTube just like everyone
else did and I would do someyoga sessions and I thought I
was doing everything okay.
But just like when you startCrossFit and you think you're
doing it okay, you're really notdoing it Okay, like you're not
(27:58):
sort of maintaining the rightpositions or or holds, and then
you came over and you wereteaching me and Susan and so
much of your corrections for thebasic, the most basic, the
downward dog, like your forwardfolds, like once you kind of get
those like locked in, it helpswith everything else.
But there's so much subtlety toall of these movements that it
(28:23):
really takes someone with apracticed eye to be able to look
at you and to correct you.
Basically, because when you'rein a class on a Saturday at like
10 am and there's like 50people in there, that instructor
is not going to be able to helpyou fix those.
And it's the same thing when Ilike I just had a 30 person
CrossFit class, like a Saturdaypartner one, and it's like there
(28:45):
are certain things you try toassist with, but like there's
just not, you're not going tohave the full attention of
somebody, so how do you help?
Like do you try in these Cause?
I have seen quite a variety.
I've seen some excellent wellto my untrained eye people doing
yoga, and then I see a lot ofus who are just kind of
half-assing it during it as wellgive the attention to all the
(29:09):
students that they really,really need.
Kristen Fazio (29:11):
It's almost impossible.
The way I approach it as ateacher is I give very strong
cues, so when you're insomething like a warrior two, I
(29:31):
will, through my words, be ableto tell you where you should be
engaging, where you should besoftening, where you should be
feeling the stretch, where youshould be backing off a little
bit, because I can't physicallygo to each individual student.
That is definitely one of mystrengths, is my cueing is my
strength point.
I wish I could hands-on helpevery single student, but it's
just impossible.
(29:51):
If every student had the timeand the financial ability to do
a private every beginner student, I would love that, but that's
not feasible.
You know, for the beginnerstudent who's like intimidated,
do you want to get into that?
For the beginner student?
Yeah, so for the beginnerstudent, I would really advise
doing a little research beforeyou jump into yoga.
(30:12):
Because of that misconceptionthat, like yoga is just
stretching, you'll be shockedwhen you step onto your yoga mat
.
So my advice is maybe go onlineand like, look at YouTube, see
what a class looks like, seewhat a flow looks like, you know
, if you're interested, justeven.
You don't even have to do it,but just to get a general idea.
Is this something that, like mybody, is interested in?
(30:33):
The other thing would be to do alittle research as far as the
studio goes, call around, reachout to one of the studios and
say do you have level one orbeginner classes?
Do you have an alignment class?
An alignment class is a reallygood thing to look for if you're
a beginner student, or do youhave a class that you would
recommend to somebody who's juststarting?
Is there a particular teacherthat works really well with
(30:55):
beginner students?
The other thing is is there atime of day that I can come to
the studio where the classes arenot quite as crowded?
Because the less crowded theclass, the more time the teacher
has to spend with you andyou'll get a little more
individual attention.
Yeah, I think those are someimportant factors to factor in,
and you might go to a class andbe like this teacher is just not
(31:17):
my jam.
I didn't like this.
I really encourage you tocontinue to try and explore
different teachers and maybedifferent styles of yoga,
because you know it's not onesize fits all, it's different
for everybody, and because it'ssuch a great modality and I do
think it really complementsCrossFit.
It would make me really sad tohear that somebody went to yoga,
hated, had a bad experience andnever did it again, you know so
(31:39):
.
Sam Rhee (31:40):
I think that's a great idea.
I didn't think about that but,like everyone like it was me too
I wanted to get my workout inSaturday morning, so then I
could, you know, watch the NFLplayoffs in the afternoon.
I was like, well, maybe if Ijust spent one afternoon class,
like it would probably be, or,or you know, a weekday evening
class, like and I would probablybe able to do a lot better in
(32:00):
terms of working with myinstructor on that.
Yeah, how about people who feellike, well, if I do it, I'm not
really going to lose a lot ofweight or burn a lot of calories
in yoga, like that's not reallymy jam in terms of I need to
really burn a lot of?
Kristen Fazio (32:15):
calories, somebody who's looking to lose?
Sam Rhee (32:17):
weight and burn calories, yeah, I mean.
Kristen Fazio (32:18):
First of all, you'd be surprised.
You know I always tell thisstory, but when I started
practicing yoga, I was the otherside.
I was very thin, I had nomuscle on me, I was like a
beanpole and I think I startedpracticing yoga I weighed 103
pounds.
Within less than a year, Ithink I gained over 10 pounds,
(32:39):
and it was all in muscle.
Sam Rhee (32:40):
Oh, wow.
Kristen Fazio (32:40):
Yeah, it is a very.
It can be a really powerful.
Now your CrossFit people aren'tlooking for more muscle, that's
for sure.
But it is like a very aerobicand there's elements that you
know you're building strength.
You're building strength inthose stabilizing muscles.
There's a ton of core workinvolved.
It is, you know.
I don't know if you wouldconsider it the best avenue for
(33:05):
weight loss, because it's notlike high intensity cardio,
you're really trying to keepyour heart rate stable but it
certainly aids in all of thebenefits.
You know you're getting a lotof other benefits from it, all
of the benefits you know you'regetting a lot of other benefits
from it.
Sam Rhee (33:22):
So how about?
So let's talk about this.
We were just talking aboutbefore the intensity,
mindfulness part of it.
So the perspective so I know alot of people who shy away from
yoga or they just don't like themind perspective on it, because
CrossFit is all about like youdon't have to think you're
outside of your head, you'rejust like I need to get these 10
(33:42):
reps done, let just get themdone.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
You know, like you don't havetime to let what you said the
monkey mind work, because you'rejust like you know, very, very
goal-oriented.
Yes, yeah in yoga there is allthe time in the world too much
time in the world.
I'm sitting there just thinkinglike about 500 million
different things.
Like can I hold this, hold thispose?
This is hurting.
Like how do I breathe?
Like why is my sweat dripping?
(34:04):
And like how much longer do Ihave?
I feel like a kid sitting, likeyou know, impatient, like you
know.
Okay, let's move on to the nextpart.
Like how do you reconcile thetwo?
Or or draw somebody who's likenot into that mindset for
resistance?
Kristen Fazio (34:21):
yeah, yeah, it's funny, I mean, oh god, there's
so much I can say about it.
I'm gonna give you this onestory first of all.
Okay, I remember when my kidswere little, I had three little
kids and you know, any mother orfather who's ever had to try to
get three kids out of theschool, out to school in the
morning, knows what it's like tolike wake them up, make their
breakfast, pack their lunches,get everybody dressed out of the
house into the car.
(34:42):
I get my kids, I do the wholejam.
I get in my car, I put my handson my steering wheel and my
left hand is covered in bloodand I'm like what is what
happened?
At some point when I was makingbreakfast or lunch or whatever,
I cut my hand, had no idea.
I cut my hand until I wiped myhand, I found the cut and all of
a sudden then it started tohurt.
I was so disconnected from myown physical body that I didn't
(35:04):
even realize that I sliced myhand open and was bleeding and
it just.
I use that example because we gothrough our days where we are
rushing.
Our head is not connected tothe rest of our physical body
and it's like how are we?
What else are we missing, right, if we don't slow down and let
our bodies quiet for like alittle bit and have that little
(35:25):
connection, that conversationbetween our body and our mind?
What else are we missing?
You know, like sometimes weneed to quiet the mind to let
the body tell us what it needs,you know.
So I am that go, go, go all thetime type of personality.
Yoga is the one time where I leteverything kind of just chill
(35:46):
and I let myself get quiet.
I used to be the person thatwas like a little impatient and
a little bit like, okay, I needthis to be over with, but
whatever.
But you know, listen, I needthis to be over with, but
whatever.
But you know, listen, I knowit's not for everybody to sit
there with their eyes closed inShavasana or to stretch and tap
in, but I would encourage you topush past that point because
(36:07):
the benefits on the other sideare really really remarkable and
, in the long term, that abilityto kind of sit quiet with
yourself is a huge part of themindful and meditative.
You know we all know that howgood meditation is for you.
It kind of all is incorporatedin that same, you know, that
same bubble.
Sam Rhee (36:26):
It's so funny because we've have had people talk at
our gym about mindfulness,people like specialists a friend
of mine, rafi Silver, comes tomind.
But it's a little differentwhen you're holding poses and
doing the same thing.
You know, when you're engagedin a yoga practice, some of it
is because it's honestly for meit's painful, but some of it is
(36:48):
also like it takes a long timeand so you're right to push out
the all right.
After this, I got to go dropoff this and I have to go pick
up this and I got to get thisthing done.
Or like I wonder what's goingto happen on Monday when this
happens.
Like it takes a lot of practice.
Kristen Fazio (37:04):
It absolutely takes a lot of practice.
It's mind control, it's beingable to control your mind and
it's funny.
It's funny.
This is where I feel likeCrossFit and yoga are really
similar is that idea that, likeyou can be in a really hard pose
and you can.
Like you can push past thatpoint of resistance.
It's all mental right, theability to say, okay, I'm about
(37:26):
to go bench press.
I don't know what's like anallot to bench press, like 500
pounds or whatever.
You know it's this a lot of.
It is a mental battle.
And can I hold this pose andbreathe and realize that I'm not
going to be here forever andthis is going to be okay?
And those lessons of being ableto be in challenging situations
and remember to breathe andremind yourself that you're okay
(37:48):
.
They translate off of the yogamat too.
I can't tell you how.
That's where the life-changingstuff happens.
It's like, you know, I used tobe the person that would like
freak out if my dishwasher brokeand I'd be like, oh my God, you
know whatever.
And now it's like I'm justgonna breathe.
It's not that big of a deal.
I'm not gonna be in this spaceforever.
We're gonna get over it.
You know.
Do over time.
(38:09):
That ability to be in hardpositions and sweating and
remembering to breathe it doesit, translates off the mat.
That's the whole point.
That's why we do it.
Sam Rhee (38:17):
That's so funny because that's exactly what we
say in CrossFit is you're in atough position, you have to
finish this workout and youdon't think you can, but you
actually, you know, findsomething deep within yourself
and you finish that workout.
That helps translate into reallife situations.
Where you're in difficultsituations, you have to keep
pushing and and it's the samething in yoga, but it's a
(38:37):
different challenge same outcomein terms of pushing your
boundaries, but the boundary interms of, like, pushing to do
three more reps versus holdingthis position and maintaining
your breathing and stayingpresent, and staying in your
mind is mind is actuallyprobably a skill set that would
be super helpful.
(38:58):
that translates out into lifewhere, okay, I have to breathe,
I have to be mindful.
Do not lose my crap right nowabout this.
Like that speaks to me on a lotof levels.
Kristen Fazio (39:11):
That's the part when I say it's changed my life,
that it's changed my life, thatit's changed my life the most.
Sam Rhee (39:15):
And I think you know and you know why, because this
is what reminds me of, like someof the best surgeons I ever saw
in the OR Like if things wentto crap, like there was some
terrible, catastrophic thingthat suddenly happened blood
vessel burst, something,something.
Something like you can't likemuscle your way out of it.
You know that's where themindfulness challenge breathe,
(39:35):
stay within yourself, move tothe next step, don't lose your
crap, sort of this speaks to memore about that in that
situation, like there's certainsituations no, you got to try
harder, you got to push harder,you got to move more, you got to
do whatever.
But there are also situationsand that's one where I could
like really see having this kindof skill set in you be like
(39:57):
okay, because those guys thatthose, those people were able to
move so well, skillfully,without you know, like the head
coming off and get through thatsituation.
Kristen Fazio (40:12):
It's important, yeah, I mean life is not always
going to hand you, you know,like the head coming off and get
through that situation.
It's important, yeah, I meanlife is not always going to hand
you.
You know what you want Right.
You know there's going to be alot of times when stuff's going
to happen that you can't control.
That's exactly right and that'sa big part of yoga is like how
do we weather the storm?
Right, you know we can't, youknow, control the waves, but we
can learn to surf them.
That's exactly right.
Sam Rhee (40:30):
So now, how does somebody fit yoga into like a
CrossFit training schedule?
So if you have an athlete andthey're like you know what, how
do I start yoga?
How do I fit it in Like, whatcan I do here?
It's expensive, crossfit isexpensive, everything's
expensive these days.
What's the best way to kind ofstart this?
Kristen Fazio (40:48):
You know, if you're the kind of person that
likes a schedule right and youdo well when you're on a routine
and a schedule, I would say tofactor in, you know, maybe two
days of CrossFit, one day yoga,two days CrossFit, one day yoga,
if you're able to have thatability to do that and if,
financially, if that's an issue,start with a YouTube video.
You know, like you said, you'renot going to get quite the same
(41:11):
instruction that you would ifyou were going to have a private
lesson.
You know, start with a YouTubevideo, see what it's all about,
try some stretches and thenmaybe you kind of pop into a
class now and again to see whatit feels like to be in a group
setting and instructed by anactual you know person.
You know, it's not the kind ofthing you need to do it every
(41:32):
single day, no-transcript.
(41:59):
If you could get an hour or youknow two in a week of of you
know, uh, more focused you knowtop to bottom full body stretch,
that would be great, yeah.
Sam Rhee (42:10):
I I find that I like your stretch class is great
because you could actually fit aworkout in beforehand and then
do that I can take a hot yogaclass, even if I had a really
hard day.
That like the day before that,taking that yoga class really
like kills me.
It's almost like a full wad init yeah, like I can.
Kristen Fazio (42:35):
I can barely hold any kind of lunge in a in a hot
yoga class because I just feelso wiped so if that's the case,
then I would look for somethingmore like a restorative or a yin
, which, where you're hold it'sa much more passive.
You're pretty much down on theground the whole time in
different postures.
You're holding the stretchesfor longer periods of time.
(42:56):
The only thing I would cautionin those classes in a yin type
class where you're holdingpostures for three to five
minutes, like, say, you're in apigeon pose.
You'd be in a pigeon pose forthree to five minutes.
I would caution against doingthat before any CrossFit
training, because you need that.
Sam Rhee (43:12):
You need that stability in your joint.
Yes, in your joint.
Kristen Fazio (43:15):
You don't want to be hypermobile before, but
that's kind of a nice complimentto something Like a power.
Yoga class is probably not whatyou're looking for after you
had a really intense day.
Sam Rhee (43:29):
But it's perfect if I had a day off and then I want to
come in and do something Likethat will kick my ass to do a
nice vinyasa or hot power, likeyou know, because you go through
all these movements and thenyou keep adding on to these
movements and then you're addingon to these.
It's a layered process and Ilove at the same time, but you
(43:50):
know, because you do get topractice each movement more.
So I feel like, okay, maybe Ican do this one a little bit
better, but then it also getstiring because you keep adding
like more complexity to it.
Yes, and then you see all thesereally good athletes in there
and they're like how are theyholding this like perfectly
every time?
Kristen Fazio (44:06):
That takes time.
That takes time.
They didn't walk in like that.
Trust me.
Sam Rhee (44:17):
So trust me.
So, um, what other uh thoughtsdo you have in terms of these
myths?
So if someone just says youknow what, why do I listen?
I'm listening to this and I'mjust not flexible, like forget
this, like well, I shouldn'teven start, because I just don't
feel like I I could do any ofthis yeah, that's the one I hear
the most when I tell peoplethat I teach yoga.
Kristen Fazio (44:31):
Oh my god, I can't do yoga because I'm not
flexible, and that always makesme laugh, because the whole
point of yoga is to becomeflexible over time.
You don't walk in the doorflexible, right?
Nobody, well, except there aresome pretzels out there that are
like origami and they can foldthemselves in a million shapes.
But the intent is to becomemore flexible through the
practice.
So you know, I would say thatconsistency.
(44:53):
Come and try and see, and witheach passing week you'll notice
more flexibility within yourbody, for sure.
Sam Rhee (45:01):
That's funny because I would throw it out to the
CrossFit athletes, because wehear it all the time.
When we talk about CrossFit,people say I'm not strong enough
, that's too scary, that's toomuch lifting, that's you know,
I'm not built that way.
I'm not strong enough, like Idon't want to do CrossFit.
And so for the CrossFitter whosays the same thing about yoga
well, I'm flipping it back toyou, because that anybody should
(45:23):
do anything seven days a weekor every you know, yeah.
So what do you do forresistance training?
Kristen Fazio (45:36):
So it's funny, I started lifting heavy weights
within the past like two yearsand I've noticed that it's
tremendous for helping my yogapractice.
Sam Rhee (45:44):
Is that right?
Kristen Fazio (45:45):
Yeah, because I'm much stronger in the poses and
I can stabilize more.
Sam Rhee (45:48):
It's not CrossFit, though.
What do you do?
Kristen Fazio (45:49):
It was not CrossFit, I'm just literally
lifting dumbbells.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm justdoing things online like I'm
doing, but I probably need tocome to you.
Sam Rhee (45:57):
You have friends.
I know you have very closefriends and I'm going to get
them to get on you to try it out, and I think that they need to
flip over, and also because Iknow them too, and they need to
actually try it out somewhat too.
Kristen Fazio (46:11):
Yeah, no, a hundred percent.
I mean, there is I.
This is why I think it's such agood balance.
You know, I'm at an age whereeverybody is telling me lift
heavy weights and eat moreprotein.
Sam Rhee (46:19):
Yes, that's the highest thing right now.
Oh, I hear yeah.
Kristen Fazio (46:23):
And you know, those like little three pound
dumbbells aren't aren't going tocut it.
So I really do think that theCrossFit yoga combination is
like a brilliant combination.
You just have to be able topush back past all of the
hangups right on both sides ofit.
Sam Rhee (46:39):
It's so true, there's so much on either side and it's
so diametric in terms of mindsetin some of these things, that
if you can actually expand onboth fronts, you're going to
actually have really, like,helped yourself very
dramatically.
Kristen Fazio (46:52):
Yeah, and I do, they do that One compliments the
other.
I think completely.
Sam Rhee (46:56):
So tell me all right.
So, to sum everything up,everyone should do CrossFit,
everyone should do yoga.
Um, the breath work is reallythe key.
Um, stay within yourself.
Uh, what are the othertakeaways you might want to give
somebody if they're like okay,I'm starting tomorrow, what else
do I need to?
Kristen Fazio (47:13):
know.
Start with an open mindset.
Don't be quick to kind of judgethe practice right away.
Like I said, if you find ateacher that doesn't mesh with
you or a style of yoga thatdoesn't quite feel right,
continue to pursue it, becauseit is incredibly beneficial.
It's been practiced forthousands and thousands of years
and there's a reason it's beenaround for so long.
Be open-minded to the idea ofthe meditation and the breath
(47:38):
work that can take you very,very far.
So what else would I say?
Do a little research in advanceand have fun with it.
Don't take yourself soseriously.
Set the ego aside.
Nobody's looking at you.
The only person that cares inthe room besides you is the
teacher.
And it's a great community.
(48:00):
It's a great place to be.
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (48:03):
It's so funny because I hear you and I hear I could
say the same thing aboutCrossFit.
For all of it, it's a greatcommunity.
Give it a chance.
If you don't find the right gymor the right box, you know,
stay with it.
Stay with it for a while.
I always tell people strive forthree months at least before
you make a decision about it.
Don't take yourself seriously,like you said, just have fun.
Kristen Fazio (48:21):
And listen to your body.
Listen to your body, Don't pushyourself past the you know.
Sam Rhee (48:25):
So all the advice I would be giving people about
CrossFit is the same thing thatyou would be giving for people
in terms of yoga and groupclasses, which, to me, just
makes it.
It validates the fact that youknow this is something that we
should all be trying Like, and Ialso believe like not everyone
is built for CrossFit, buteveryone should try it.
And it's the same thing foryoga.
Everyone may not be truly builtfor yoga, but you should really
(48:48):
try it and if you do engage init and stick with it like it is
not just for the short term butfor longevity purposes
tremendous.
Kristen Fazio (48:58):
That's one thing for sure that I did want to
touch on is like we all want tobe able to get up and down the
stairs and get in and out of thecar without, you know, needing
assistance and walking without awalker.
Walking without a walker, andyou know, over time, you know,
if we don't address the mobilityand the range of motion and all
those issues, we're going tolose that ability right.
So it's really important to getlow on the ground and work
(49:22):
against that resistance.
It's really important to try toget off the ground without
using your hands, and these areall things that we do in a yoga
class, and so longevity is, youknow, the name of the game, I
think, in yoga.
Sam Rhee (49:32):
It's so funny.
I was taking a cab ride back tothe airport in India from my
hotel and I had the talkiestdriver and he was talking about
his 95-year-old dad, who doesyoga by himself every day.
That's the normal practice.
They all learn how to do it inIndia.
They do it in gym class, yes,so you know the fact that his
(49:55):
95-year-old dad is just doing itfor like.
In the morning before breakfasthe gave me the exhaustive
routine and I was like, how doyou learn?
And he's just like what do youmean?
This is what life is.
Life is like you just know it.
Kristen Fazio (50:09):
Yeah Well, they eat on the ground typically and
they, when they're washing theirdishes and stuff, they're, you
know, squatting.
That's like a huge I mean, wedon't squat anymore, that's like
an ancient thing on the Westernculture.
We're always sitting infurniture, we're never sitting
on the ground.
Sam Rhee (50:24):
So I mean, I don't have to eat curry every day.
Kristen Fazio (50:27):
I do love curry.
Sam Rhee (50:39):
But I would say the yoga takeaway that definitely
resonated with me as well.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So thank you so much, kristen.
That was amazing, and so peoplecan reach you at KristenFAZYoga
on Instagram and you coach atVillage Yoga in Glen Rock or
Real Hot in Ridgewood, and whatwas the place?
Powerflow in Clifton Powerflowin Clifton, so check out the
schedule.
If you have any questions aboutyoga and CrossFit, reach out to
(51:01):
us.
Botox and burpees we're happyto pass them along and also, if
you have any other topicssimilar to that you might think
would be helpful for us, let usknow.
Thank you very much.
Kristen Fazio (51:13):
Thank you for having me.
Welcome to another episode of Botox and Purpues.
I have with me today my veryspecial guest, kristen Fazio.
I've known her for years.
She is an expert on yoga andhas been a longtime yoga
instructor for me and for many,many others, and our topic today
is really about is yogaappropriate for CrossFit
(00:24):
athletes?
I mean, we're going to talkabout all athletes that I think
(00:48):
a lot of boxes have tried toincorporate yoga, or a lot of
athletes have tried to, and sowe want to just take a little
bit of a dive, pick Kristen'sbrain, her experience, her
thoughts about how this might ormight not help an athlete.
So welcome, kristen.
Thank you so much for doingthis.
Kristen Fazio (01:04):
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Sam Rhee (01:06):
I'm so glad.
So talk to me a little bitabout yourself, Kristen.
How did you get into yoga?
What's your experience beenlike?
What is it that yoga has donefor you?
Kristen Fazio (01:18):
What has it not done for me?
It's the better question to ask.
We'll be here for a shortertime if I answer it in that way.
But I started yoga practicing aregular practice I would say
about 16 years ago, right aftermy third daughter was born.
My third child was born, I justwanted something physical and I
was not a gym girl, I wasn'tinto treadmills and that kind of
thing.
And a friend of mine asked me tocome to a yoga class with her.
(01:40):
I went and it was really.
It was like love at first sight.
I just I fell in love with thepractice.
I started practicing regularly.
It just kind of answered a lotof the things that I needed in
my life physically.
And then, you know, theemotional part came into it,
which that happens later.
And then, yeah, about 10 yearsinto my practice, my husband
suggested like why don't youpursue becoming a teacher
(02:03):
yourself?
And I was really intimidated bythat idea.
I just thought like I couldnever know enough to be the
teacher.
I still am very humbled aboutthe idea of being a teacher
because there's I'll never knoweverything right and I and
that's part of the process.
But it's been great and I loveeverything about it.
Sam Rhee (02:22):
What do you specialize in?
I know I've taken your classes,I've also taken lessons with
you, and so what is it that youwould characterize your approach
in terms of teaching andcoaching, because I think every
yoga instructor is a little bitdifferent.
So what would you describe yourapproach to be?
Kristen Fazio (02:40):
Yeah, every teacher is really really unique
and different and everybodybrings their own style to the
practice.
I would kind of define my styleas more of an athletic approach
to yoga.
I'm very into anatomy and theway the body moves.
I'm into alignment so makingsure that you're safely in the
(03:02):
poses.
So making sure that you'resafely in the poses.
And then I'm really intobuilding strength so that when
you're in the poses you're inthem safely and securely.
You're not just moving intoyour flexibility but you're
really stabilizing your muscles.
So I would say I teach withmore of an energetic approach.
My class is definitely targetedto people that are more into
the athletic endeavor of yoga,but I also incorporate, you know
(03:23):
, all of the really nice thingsabout yoga.
Like there's always breath workinvolved in my classes.
I'll sometimes incorporate adharma talk, which is just, like
you know, more of aphilosophical point of view to
weave that through the practice.
So you kind of get a little ofeverything, but it's definitely
more, I would say, athleticfocused and where do you?
Sam Rhee (03:41):
where do you coach?
Kristen Fazio (03:42):
so I teach currently out of a couple
studios in Bergen County, NewJersey.
I teach at a really greatlittle boutique studio called
Village Yoga in.
Glen Rock.
I teach at a smaller chain yogaplace called Power Flow Yoga in
Clifton and then I teach at amore popular they're throwing
all over the place a placecalled Real Hot Yoga in
(04:03):
Ridgewood.
And then I teach at a morepopular they're growing all over
the place a place called RealHot Yoga in Ridgewood.
And they all you know arecompletely different studios,
completely different clientele,and I think that's what I love
about it.
Sam Rhee (04:11):
You're really busy.
You do a lot, yeah, and thenyou also teach privately as well
.
Kristen Fazio (04:15):
I teach private stuff and I do.
I teach mat pilates now and Ialso teach a mobility and
stretch class as well.
Sam Rhee (04:25):
Yes, which has been excellent.
I've taken that one, so yourInstagram handle is
KristenFAZYoga.
That's right, yes, yeah, and sothat's where people can reach
you.
Yeah, let's talk a little bitabout yoga itself, because I
have done yoga for years.
I don't even know what yoga wasuntil I started researching it
for this episode, and so let mesay what the definition is and
(04:46):
then you can sort of expound onit.
I've read it as the ancientIndian practice that combines
physical postures, which areasanas.
I was like, oh, that's whatasanas are physical postures,
asanas, yeah, asanas.
See, I don't even know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it'sbreathing techniques, which is
pranayama, and then meditationor relaxation, which is what you
mentioned.
Dhyanas, dhyanas, dhyanas.
(05:09):
How do you pronounce that?
Kristen Fazio (05:10):
Wait, which one.
Sam Rhee (05:11):
I don't know Dharmas, the dharmas.
Kristen Fazio (05:14):
Yeah, and that's just more of like what the
teacher will kind of weave, likethe story they'll tell.
You know, maybe they'll read apoem in the beginning of the
class or something like that.
Sam Rhee (05:21):
So all three of those things physical, breathing and
meditation is that mind, body,spirit, sort of melding, right?
Kristen Fazio (05:29):
And that's, you just hit on it.
So that's what yoga means.
Literally translates to theword to yoke.
To yoke, which is To yoke themind and the body together, oh,
to pull it all together.
Sam Rhee (05:39):
Yeah, mm-hmm, ah, okay , so, okay.
So if you had never done yoga,do you need to know these things
in order to actually do it?
No, so how do you actuallyteach these practices in the
action or movement of doing thisOf a class?
Kristen Fazio (05:56):
Yeah, so every class and what defines yoga as
yoga other than just like aworkout moving through poses is
the breath work.
So every yoga class starts withsome type of seated or laying
down breath work, where you linkthe mind and the breath
together, the body and thebreath together, and then you
(06:17):
move on to like incorporatingthe breath to the movement.
So in vinyasa style, we'll getinto that.
That's what I teach.
Every single movement has acorresponding breath that goes
with it, so it's either aninhale or an exhale, and that is
how you weave the breath intothe physical practice.
Sam Rhee (06:35):
Which is hard, because when I first started and when I
still do it, I'm still like,yes, like breathing.
Kristen Fazio (06:40):
That is the part that definitely takes the
longest to cultivate.
But it's when you get that,that then the practice.
That's when the light bulb goesoff and you're like, oh, I
understand now.
Sam Rhee (06:50):
You know it's funny because this is from India and I
just visited India for thefirst time in my entire life and
I didn't realize, like, forexample, the namaste, that is a
greeting that everybody does toeach other.
It's not.
I mean, some of this is rootedin Hindu tradition, but it's not
religious.
Kristen Fazio (07:08):
It's not.
Sam Rhee (07:09):
It's like saying hello or aloha or mahalo, like these
are.
And so yoga itself is not.
It's spiritual, but it's notround like cause.
Some people worry like am Igoing to become some crazy, like
culty person?
And it's not.
It's just.
You know, there's nothingthat's incompatible with
(07:30):
spirituality and learning how tobreathe and like focus on your
mind and body.
That's any different foranybody.
100% yeah.
Kristen Fazio (07:40):
I mean, I have been asked that before.
You know, is it considered, youknow, a religious practice?
And I guess you could look atit from that perspective.
But I look at it as it's aspiritual practice and really,
and when you think of whateverdivine spirit you're practicing
toward, it could be yourself.
I mean it's yourself really.
It's becoming quiet and gettingto know yourself.
Sam Rhee (08:00):
Right, so every time I say namaste, now it doesn't it.
I didn't understand it until Iwent to India and I and I saw
everyone doing it, and then Iunderstood that this was uh, no,
actually the light in me honorsthe light in you.
Kristen Fazio (08:13):
There you go.
Sam Rhee (08:14):
Uh, nice, that's right , and you say that also actually
, um, when you open clothes.
Uh, yes, and so that is, uh,and it's actually a really nice
way of saying hello to somebody.
It's beautiful, I love it.
Yeah, um, okay.
So let's talk about thedifferent styles.
So you mentioned vinyasa, whichis like what is this?
Flow, flow yoga.
Kristen Fazio (08:34):
Yeah, so the word vinyasa literally translates,
loosely translates to um, toplace mindfully.
Sam Rhee (08:40):
Okay.
Kristen Fazio (08:41):
So, um, as I just mentioned before, in a vinyasa
style class, every movement hasa corresponding inhale or an
exhale.
You typically like rise up onthe inhale, you ground down on
an exhale, you effort on theexhale, you lengthen on an
inhale, or you deepen yourstretch on the exhale, you
lengthen out on the inhale, andthen what happens is you start
(09:05):
slow, you start on the ground,you start to link those
movements and breaths together,and then the poses get bigger, a
little more robust, a littlemore challenging, and the
challenge of yoga, then, is tomaintain that slow breath in and
out through the nose for theduration of the practice.
Sam Rhee (09:19):
Right.
So if you're signing up for avinyasa class or a flow class,
that's what you can expect forthat.
Kristen Fazio (09:24):
Yeah, it starts slow, it starts to get and then
it gets a little more rigorousand, yeah, it's a good workout.
Sam Rhee (09:28):
So what's the difference between, say, vinyasa
and a power yoga workout?
Kristen Fazio (09:32):
They're pretty similar.
They're pretty similar.
It's really more theinterpretation of the teacher.
I would say my vinyasa flowclasses are basically power
classes.
Sam Rhee (09:40):
So they're very dynamic to strengthen the legs.
Kristen Fazio (09:43):
You might incorporate extra chaturangas,
which are basically yogapush-ups.
(10:05):
So yeah, there's definitely anelement of a physical, more
physical element to that kind ofstyle of yoga.
Sam Rhee (10:12):
I saw other types of yoga, but I don't see very many
places that offer these so muchlike a kundalini yoga, which is
some sort of energy at the baseof your spine type of it's
really interesting.
Kristen Fazio (10:24):
You wear all white.
It's a totally different formof yoga.
I mean it's really fascinatingbut it's not quite as popular.
I mean, all of the places thatare popping up now are more the
energy like the vinyasa approach, the more power based.
But there is, there's Kundalini, there's Iyengar, there's
(10:46):
Ashtanga I mean the list goes on.
Know, we talked about earlierit's.
There's probably over a dozenstyles of yoga and you know
people are adding more.
I just actually, before I camehere, I took a yoga for athletes
.
You know, like I don't evenknow if there's a name for it,
but you know there's.
Everybody kind of puts theirlittle curve on there got it.
Sam Rhee (11:01):
And then the one that I'm most familiar with is adding
heat like hot yoga.
So talk to me about hot yogaand how that is different and
how that can help in terms ofyour yoga practice.
Kristen Fazio (11:13):
Yeah, so a lot of these vinyasa style or power
style classes are incorporatingheat.
It's hot yoga Room is typicallyheated to about 85 to 100
degrees, depending on the studio.
And depending on the studio,some of them incorporate
humidity, some of them don't.
The theory behind it is thatthe heat and humidity is
(11:36):
supposed to open and lengthenyour muscles.
You get into the workout alittle bit quicker that way.
You're able to get into thestretches a little more safely.
It's great for detoxifying that, you know.
Opening the pores, gettingthrough that lymphatic drainage.
All of that stuff is supposedto be really beneficial.
It comes with its risks.
You want me to touch on that alittle bit.
(11:58):
You know, when you arehypermobile, when the body is
really supple from the heatespecially call it 30 minutes
into the practice, 40 minutesinto the practice, after you've
been moving for a whilesometimes you are not relying on
your strength and you'rerelying on that, getting into
those deep, deep stretches, andsometimes that can be an issue
because you're then stretchinginto the joint area a little too
(12:20):
much.
Right, you're collapsing intoyour flexibility and when the
body gets tired, that's whathappens, right, you're not using
your strength.
So I personally, when I'mteaching, I don't love the room
to be like insanely hot.
I just don't see the point init.
I like my students to get alittle sweat, I like them to
feel really comfortable andlengthened, but around 95
(12:40):
degrees is where I'm turning offthe heat.
Sam Rhee (12:42):
That's so funny because that does sound actually
like CrossFit, when you're, say, deep into a workout and you're
doing a lot of pull-ups orsomething and you stop using
your muscles to control yourmovement and instead you're
relying on your connectivetissue and your tendons and
ligaments to sort of take thatforce.
Kristen Fazio (12:58):
And it's dangerous.
Sam Rhee (12:59):
That's where people get into problems 100% and so
it's when you're not sort offocused on being mindful with
what you're doing in terms ofmuscular control.
Kristen Fazio (13:09):
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (13:10):
I love hot yoga because it does make me feel you
know, yeah, cleansed.
Or you know afterwards I dosweat a ton, so it's like I do
too.
Yeah, so it's crazy, like howmuch I sweat and how much I have
to rehydrate afterwards.
Yeah, so it's crazy, like howhow much I sweat and how much I
have to rehydrate afterwardsyeah, but I would say that it
does really help you get intopositions better.
(13:31):
It takes a little while to getused to it.
I mean, I remember the firstcouple of times I almost was
like oh, I need to run out ofthe room, it's so hot.
But I just kind of sat thereand you kind of get used to it
after a while.
Kristen Fazio (13:41):
You do, you do and you build up a tolerance.
You know you have a little more, you know tolerance to it.
You definitely your thresholdgoes a little bit higher.
Sam Rhee (13:49):
So let's talk a little bit about what benefits yoga
may have for athletes.
The first one is reallymobility and flexibility.
So a lot of CrossFit workoutsdo require, you know, squat
positions that you know requiremobility.
Overhead squats presses, youknow.
So have you seen in yourathletes that you've coached or
(14:14):
taught yoga to that thatmobility and flexibility benefit
from yoga?
Kristen Fazio (14:20):
Yeah, it's funny that you say this.
The other day I was talking toone of my students who's been
coming to my class regularly Hisname is Peter for about the
past year and a half and he's abig CrossFit guy and, in
anticipation of thisconversation with you, I just
kind of pulled him aside andasked him where he sees the
benefits and he said his abilityto get deep in the squats,
because you want to get below 90degrees, you want your hips low
(14:42):
, so then you can thrust up.
He said his hips, his knees,his ankles, which is something
you don't really think aboutquite as much, but you need his
wrists and his shoulders.
He's like it has made all of thedifference.
So he notices that improvementfrom doing yoga for about a year
and a half.
Sam Rhee (15:02):
He said he noticed it within the first few months.
Yeah, I think that's true,because so much.
I mean, we'll do maybe five to10 minutes of stretching in a
class before we actually workout, and I did it today as a
coach, and I know it's cold,it's like 7 am, but when you put
someone into a pigeon pose andthey can't even move like at all
in that like you can see howinflexible um you know, I mean
(15:28):
crossfit training itself is notconducive to mobility.
Kristen Fazio (15:32):
You, you have to bring your own level of mobility
into it, right, it's not goingto help you become more mobile
or more flexible and you benefitfrom being more stable in your
joints, right, because you'rethrusting and then you're
holding these, that's so youhave to be careful, you know, of
being hypermobile in the jointsbut finding the mobility in the
other areas, right to depth,but at least you're not going to
(16:07):
push yourself out of position.
Sam Rhee (16:08):
And my argument to that is first of all, what's the
point of doing a quarter squatif that's safe?
Like that's unhelpful for anyathlete.
Like you need to developflexibility and mobility so that
you can do fuller range ofmotions more safely.
Kristen Fazio (16:24):
And the body is designed to be able to do those
poses.
It's just that over time, welose that mobility and that
flexibility, and so really, whatyoga is doing is hopefully
bringing you back to your setpoint, right Like bringing you
back to the space where yourbody was designed to be.
It's not creating hypermobilityit shouldn't.
If it's done correctly, it'sreally just bringing you to that
(16:45):
space where you're supposed tobe.
Sam Rhee (16:48):
The body is designed to move that way.
When we were five years old andwe could sit, there and squat
Exactly, exactly, exactly.
Recovery and injury prevention.
So how can yoga help us interms of movement, blood flow,
when we're not doing CrossFitworkouts but we're doing yoga
workouts instead in terms ofaiding us in terms of that
(17:10):
post-workout recovery?
Kristen Fazio (17:13):
Yeah.
So you know all of thatstretching that you're doing is
bringing fresh oxygenated bloodinto those muscles, into those
joint areas, and that's huge.
I mean, we're learning so muchabout inflammation and then you
know, getting rid ofinflammation and flushing out
that area.
So bringing the blood intothose areas to help promote
healing is great.
(17:33):
You know it's the sweating, youknow help get rid of all that
metabolic waste that you've gotin your body.
Sam Rhee (17:43):
I think the breathing can help a lot because that
really activates theparasympathetics.
So we're like all adrenalineduring our crossfit workouts.
Kristen Fazio (17:51):
You are fight or flight, right?
Sam Rhee (17:52):
Yes, but then when you have to force yourself to
breathe slowly, to like controlthat heart rate by breathing
slower, like that makes a bigdifference in terms of sort of
balancing that mental state Iwould say 100%.
Kristen Fazio (18:05):
That's funny.
The guy, Peter, that I wastalking to mentioned that too as
being a really big part of itwhich you don't really think of.
You think of the physicalaspect, but there is this idea
that you're constantly right inthat sympathetic nervous state
which over time.
It's not healthy to never comeout of that.
It's funny.
(18:25):
I recently started doingPilates and it's hard Reformer.
Pilates is really, reallychallenging and I got really
into it for the first few weeksand I wasn't going to my doing
my regular yoga practice quiteas much.
And it's funny after like thesecond week of maybe only
practicing once, of practicingyoga once a week, I kind of was
like something's going on withme and I feel a little off and
(18:47):
that's what it was.
I realized I wasn't gettinginto that parasympathetic
nervous state like nervousrelease.
I was just constantly in thattriggered state and that's
something that yoga brings in.
It helps your body relax.
It's so important for healing.
There's so many studies thatsay how beneficial it is for
(19:08):
promoting muscle recovery andeverything else.
So it is something that I wouldthink if you don't have it
regularly in your life, youdon't really realize that it's
missing.
But then when you start toincorporate in your life and you
take it away, then you start torealize oh wait, this is
something that I really, reallyneed.
Sam Rhee (19:26):
I really believe that, especially because I've seen
some high-level CrossFitathletes who actually were so
adrenaline depleted.
They actually measured it ontheir physiologic test and they
actually were like oh, you gotto actually change things up a
little bit, yeah, yeah, and theyactually were like oh, you got
to actually change things up alittle bit, yeah, yeah.
And that's something that, likeyou said, you don't even notice
it until you actually take thattime to address it.
(19:46):
Balance and core strength thisis again balance is one of the,
I think, things we never test inCrossFit Like we do for, you
know, pistols, like one-leggedsquats and some other things,
like we do for pistols, likeone-legged squats and some other
things.
But I remember in yoga classesdoing tree position or any of
(20:09):
these other poses, theseone-legged poses, and you see
how amazing these people who Imean when I first came in and I
was snobby, I was like, oh, theydon't look so fit.
And I'm like, oh my God, theirbalance and their coordination
is out of control.
They don't look so fit.
And I'm like oh my God, theirbalance and their coordination
is out of control.
Speak a little bit about howmuch balance is required for
many of these yoga positions.
Kristen Fazio (20:27):
Well, I first want to just say that I think
balance is really underrated and, as far as longevity goes,
being able to balance iseverything right.
You hear about somebodyslipping, falling, breaking a
hip and then never the sameagain.
So if you, you know if you'recoming for one thing, for yoga
most people wouldn't say balance, but I think it's one of the
most important factors learninghow to hold your body weight up
(20:49):
on one, one leg or whatever.
What was the question?
Sam Rhee (20:52):
So yeah, so what you know poses or other movements in
yoga can help us in terms ofmaintaining that balance.
I mean, and how do you practicethat?
Like I, when I do tree, like Ican barely like stand with my
one foot on top of my otherright, right much less stick
that foot out to a side.
Kristen Fazio (21:13):
Yes, so part of it is is training towards that
right.
Like all balancing posesrequire core strength.
They all require abductormuscle strength.
I mean, those are the like, thesmaller stabilizing muscles
like that in CrossFit you'reprobably not focusing on quite
as much.
You're working with largermuscle groups.
In yoga you do kind of refineand work into those smaller
(21:34):
muscles supporting muscle groups.
So that's like your foundationand you might do 20 poses
leading up to a balance pose.
That will help to get you thento be able to balance the way
you need to be.
A lot of it is being able tocalm the mind and focus on the
breath.
I once had a teacher say, whenwe were struggling to balance in
a really challenging pose, hejust said quiet the mind and for
(21:57):
some reason that clicked withme and I was just like wow,
because what happens when we'rein balancing poses is we forget
to breathe.
And if you can remind yourselfjust to slow down and breathe,
it really it's all mental.
It's really all mental.
Sam Rhee (22:21):
I think it resonates with me in terms of longevity
and, you know, prediction interms of how long you can live
is very, very stronglycorrelated with your ability to
balance.
And they have tested andthere's a very simple test where
you just stand on one leg, onefoot, and you see how long you
can balance for and that's avery strong predictive value for
, you know, future injury andrisk, like how long you can do
it for.
And so the fact that all thosestabilizer muscles, the fact
(22:44):
that you have the kinestheticsense of being able to control
your body regardless of whatit's doing, that is the part I
really also love about yoga interms of complementary to
CrossFit.
Those stabilizer muscles maynot be necessarily as important
when you're, like you said,focusing on large muscles, but
(23:05):
when you are lifting a heavyweight, all those stabilizer
muscles, when you're kind ofgetting a little wiggly or
jiggly, unstable, that's what'sgoing to save you from risk of
serious injury 100%, yeah, andjust that.
Kristen Fazio (23:20):
back to what you're saying about those little
stabilizers you know theproprioception in your feet are
really important.
You know some of your listenersmight not know this, but you
practice yoga barefoot, with nosocks on or anything like that,
and just a thin mat underneathyou, and just that.
You know we really don't takein this Western culture of ours.
We don't take off our shoesoften.
We're walking in shoes on pavedsurfaces constantly.
(23:40):
So this idea of your footgetting you know used to
stabilizing in an unstablesituation is really, really
important.
Sam Rhee (23:48):
So true, breath work.
So this is what we talked abouta little bit about breath
awareness, lung capacity.
This is one of the hardestthings and I didn't even realize
this, probably until I don'tknow, maybe like six months or
almost a year that, oh wait,it's not about holding these
poses, it's about breathingthrough these poses, hello.
So how do you help people dothat, as they're doing this?
Kristen Fazio (24:12):
So that is the part of the yoga that I think
takes the longest to cultivate.
Anybody can put themselves in,you know, a warrior two pose and
make it look pretty good, rightit's.
Can you hold a warrior two poseand make it look pretty good,
right it's.
Can you hold a warrior two andthen breathe in it?
And, really, you know, thenmove from that to another pose
that's challenging and continueto breathe.
So you start with that.
Like I said, you start seatedor laying down and you cultivate
(24:33):
the breath there.
You laid the base for that andthen you know, the teacher will
take you through smaller poseswhere you're on the ground,
where you're closer to theground, where you're not
focusing on balance or anythingelse, and you're then starting
to move into the breath workthere, so something like cow-cat
or you know, spinal flexion andextension, and you incorporate
the breath there and then theposes get bigger and the breath
(24:58):
continues through those posesand a good teacher will remind
you in these poses to breathe,because sometimes you need the
reminder, sometimes I forget,you know, like, if it's a really
challenging pose, okay, I'mdoing this right, I'm doing this
right, but am I breathing?
Because if you're not breathing, then it ain't yoga.
Now that it, it's the purposethat's exactly right, yeah, um.
Sam Rhee (25:18):
So what?
Uh?
What are the challenges orrisks?
So nothing is without risk.
Right, you could run and youcould hurt yourself.
So if we were talking about,like, how awesome running is,
like there could be 50 peopleout there, like I got injured
running, yeah, like.
So what are the sort of thingsthat, if you do yoga regularly,
(25:40):
you have to watch out for?
What are the common types ofrisks that you might encounter
in terms of if you do yoga a lot?
Kristen Fazio (25:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'm a big believer in everything you
know in moderation, so we'lltouch on that later.
But you can absolutelyoverstretch.
You can absolutely bestretching in the wrong part of
the muscle, right?
I hear a lot of times, likewhen we're I'll use hamstrings
(26:07):
as an example people gettingwhat's called yoga butt, which
is this strain right where thehamstring attaches, right
beneath the glute.
It's referred to as yoga buttbecause when people are doing
tons of forward folds orstretching their hamstrings,
instead of letting the muscle,the stretch, focus in the belly
of the hamstring, they'restretching at the attachment
point and over time, over andover and over.
We know repetitive movement canbe injurious.
So it's really important twothings A to listen to your body
(26:31):
and I know that sounds like alittle cliche, but it is so
important to be able to set yourego aside is a huge thing in
yoga.
You know the thing about that'sdifferent about yoga and
CrossFit is yoga is a veryindividual endeavor.
Yeah, you're on your mat andyou really are instructed to,
and can be hard.
But to just block out everybodyelse in the room and just make
(26:52):
the practice about you, yeah,what happens is, you know, you
see the person to the right ofyou like getting into a full
split and you're like let me seeif I can do that.
Exactly so.
That is a risk that people haveto kind of avoid, the
temptation I fall prey to it.
Often I'm like, oh, I used tobe able to do this, why can't I
do this today?
So, you know, listening to yourbody, setting your ego aside
(27:13):
and finding an instructor thatworks with you.
You know, some instructorsmight push you to do something
that you're not comfortable with.
You're the only one who knowswhat it feels like in your body.
You're the only one that knowsthe difference between like oh,
that's a good stretch, and thatstretch feels really weird, or
my knee can't go into thatposition and that's okay.
You just have to be able toreally, you know, listen to what
your body is telling you.
Sam Rhee (27:34):
I think it's helpful if you're first starting to have
some private instruction.
Honestly, like I remember whenI first started it was during
COVID and so I would just go onto YouTube just like everyone
else did and I would do someyoga sessions and I thought I
was doing everything okay.
But just like when you startCrossFit and you think you're
doing it okay, you're really notdoing it Okay, like you're not
(27:58):
sort of maintaining the rightpositions or or holds, and then
you came over and you wereteaching me and Susan and so
much of your corrections for thebasic, the most basic, the
downward dog, like your forwardfolds, like once you kind of get
those like locked in, it helpswith everything else.
But there's so much subtlety toall of these movements that it
(28:23):
really takes someone with apracticed eye to be able to look
at you and to correct you.
Basically, because when you'rein a class on a Saturday at like
10 am and there's like 50people in there, that instructor
is not going to be able to helpyou fix those.
And it's the same thing when Ilike I just had a 30 person
CrossFit class, like a Saturdaypartner one, and it's like there
(28:45):
are certain things you try toassist with, but like there's
just not, you're not going tohave the full attention of
somebody, so how do you help?
Like do you try in these Cause?
I have seen quite a variety.
I've seen some excellent wellto my untrained eye people doing
yoga, and then I see a lot ofus who are just kind of
half-assing it during it as wellgive the attention to all the
(29:09):
students that they really,really need.
Kristen Fazio (29:11):
It's almost impossible.
The way I approach it as ateacher is I give very strong
cues, so when you're insomething like a warrior two, I
(29:31):
will, through my words, be ableto tell you where you should be
engaging, where you should besoftening, where you should be
feeling the stretch, where youshould be backing off a little
bit, because I can't physicallygo to each individual student.
That is definitely one of mystrengths, is my cueing is my
strength point.
I wish I could hands-on helpevery single student, but it's
just impossible.
(29:51):
If every student had the timeand the financial ability to do
a private every beginner student, I would love that, but that's
not feasible.
You know, for the beginnerstudent who's like intimidated,
do you want to get into that?
For the beginner student?
Yeah, so for the beginnerstudent, I would really advise
doing a little research beforeyou jump into yoga.
(30:12):
Because of that misconceptionthat, like yoga is just
stretching, you'll be shockedwhen you step onto your yoga mat
.
So my advice is maybe go onlineand like, look at YouTube, see
what a class looks like, seewhat a flow looks like, you know
, if you're interested, justeven.
You don't even have to do it,but just to get a general idea.
Is this something that, like mybody, is interested in?
(30:33):
The other thing would be to do alittle research as far as the
studio goes, call around, reachout to one of the studios and
say do you have level one orbeginner classes?
Do you have an alignment class?
An alignment class is a reallygood thing to look for if you're
a beginner student, or do youhave a class that you would
recommend to somebody who's juststarting?
Is there a particular teacherthat works really well with
(30:55):
beginner students?
The other thing is is there atime of day that I can come to
the studio where the classes arenot quite as crowded?
Because the less crowded theclass, the more time the teacher
has to spend with you andyou'll get a little more
individual attention.
Yeah, I think those are someimportant factors to factor in,
and you might go to a class andbe like this teacher is just not
(31:17):
my jam.
I didn't like this.
I really encourage you tocontinue to try and explore
different teachers and maybedifferent styles of yoga,
because you know it's not onesize fits all, it's different
for everybody, and because it'ssuch a great modality and I do
think it really complementsCrossFit.
It would make me really sad tohear that somebody went to yoga,
hated, had a bad experience andnever did it again, you know so
(31:39):
.
Sam Rhee (31:40):
I think that's a great idea.
I didn't think about that but,like everyone like it was me too
I wanted to get my workout inSaturday morning, so then I
could, you know, watch the NFLplayoffs in the afternoon.
I was like, well, maybe if Ijust spent one afternoon class,
like it would probably be, or,or you know, a weekday evening
class, like and I would probablybe able to do a lot better in
(32:00):
terms of working with myinstructor on that.
Yeah, how about people who feellike, well, if I do it, I'm not
really going to lose a lot ofweight or burn a lot of calories
in yoga, like that's not reallymy jam in terms of I need to
really burn a lot of?
Kristen Fazio (32:15):
calories, somebody who's looking to lose?
Sam Rhee (32:17):
weight and burn calories, yeah, I mean.
Kristen Fazio (32:18):
First of all, you'd be surprised.
You know I always tell thisstory, but when I started
practicing yoga, I was the otherside.
I was very thin, I had nomuscle on me, I was like a
beanpole and I think I startedpracticing yoga I weighed 103
pounds.
Within less than a year, Ithink I gained over 10 pounds,
(32:39):
and it was all in muscle.
Sam Rhee (32:40):
Oh, wow.
Kristen Fazio (32:40):
Yeah, it is a very.
It can be a really powerful.
Now your CrossFit people aren'tlooking for more muscle, that's
for sure.
But it is like a very aerobicand there's elements that you
know you're building strength.
You're building strength inthose stabilizing muscles.
There's a ton of core workinvolved.
It is, you know.
I don't know if you wouldconsider it the best avenue for
(33:05):
weight loss, because it's notlike high intensity cardio,
you're really trying to keepyour heart rate stable but it
certainly aids in all of thebenefits.
You know you're getting a lotof other benefits from it, all
of the benefits you know you'regetting a lot of other benefits
from it.
Sam Rhee (33:22):
So how about?
So let's talk about this.
We were just talking aboutbefore the intensity,
mindfulness part of it.
So the perspective so I know alot of people who shy away from
yoga or they just don't like themind perspective on it, because
CrossFit is all about like youdon't have to think you're
outside of your head, you'rejust like I need to get these 10
(33:42):
reps done, let just get themdone.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
You know, like you don't havetime to let what you said the
monkey mind work, because you'rejust like you know, very, very
goal-oriented.
Yes, yeah in yoga there is allthe time in the world too much
time in the world.
I'm sitting there just thinkinglike about 500 million
different things.
Like can I hold this, hold thispose?
This is hurting.
Like how do I breathe?
Like why is my sweat dripping?
(34:04):
And like how much longer do Ihave?
I feel like a kid sitting, likeyou know, impatient, like you
know.
Okay, let's move on to the nextpart.
Like how do you reconcile thetwo?
Or or draw somebody who's likenot into that mindset for
resistance?
Kristen Fazio (34:21):
yeah, yeah, it's funny, I mean, oh god, there's
so much I can say about it.
I'm gonna give you this onestory first of all.
Okay, I remember when my kidswere little, I had three little
kids and you know, any mother orfather who's ever had to try to
get three kids out of theschool, out to school in the
morning, knows what it's like tolike wake them up, make their
breakfast, pack their lunches,get everybody dressed out of the
house into the car.
(34:42):
I get my kids, I do the wholejam.
I get in my car, I put my handson my steering wheel and my
left hand is covered in bloodand I'm like what is what
happened?
At some point when I was makingbreakfast or lunch or whatever,
I cut my hand, had no idea.
I cut my hand until I wiped myhand, I found the cut and all of
a sudden then it started tohurt.
I was so disconnected from myown physical body that I didn't
(35:04):
even realize that I sliced myhand open and was bleeding and
it just.
I use that example because we gothrough our days where we are
rushing.
Our head is not connected tothe rest of our physical body
and it's like how are we?
What else are we missing, right, if we don't slow down and let
our bodies quiet for like alittle bit and have that little
(35:25):
connection, that conversationbetween our body and our mind?
What else are we missing?
You know, like sometimes weneed to quiet the mind to let
the body tell us what it needs,you know.
So I am that go, go, go all thetime type of personality.
Yoga is the one time where I leteverything kind of just chill
(35:46):
and I let myself get quiet.
I used to be the person thatwas like a little impatient and
a little bit like, okay, I needthis to be over with, but
whatever.
But you know, listen, I needthis to be over with, but
whatever.
But you know, listen, I knowit's not for everybody to sit
there with their eyes closed inShavasana or to stretch and tap
in, but I would encourage you topush past that point because
(36:07):
the benefits on the other sideare really really remarkable and
, in the long term, that abilityto kind of sit quiet with
yourself is a huge part of themindful and meditative.
You know we all know that howgood meditation is for you.
It kind of all is incorporatedin that same, you know, that
same bubble.
Sam Rhee (36:26):
It's so funny because we've have had people talk at
our gym about mindfulness,people like specialists a friend
of mine, rafi Silver, comes tomind.
But it's a little differentwhen you're holding poses and
doing the same thing.
You know, when you're engagedin a yoga practice, some of it
is because it's honestly for meit's painful, but some of it is
(36:48):
also like it takes a long timeand so you're right to push out
the all right.
After this, I got to go dropoff this and I have to go pick
up this and I got to get thisthing done.
Or like I wonder what's goingto happen on Monday when this
happens.
Like it takes a lot of practice.
Kristen Fazio (37:04):
It absolutely takes a lot of practice.
It's mind control, it's beingable to control your mind and
it's funny.
It's funny.
This is where I feel likeCrossFit and yoga are really
similar is that idea that, likeyou can be in a really hard pose
and you can.
Like you can push past thatpoint of resistance.
It's all mental right, theability to say, okay, I'm about
(37:26):
to go bench press.
I don't know what's like anallot to bench press, like 500
pounds or whatever.
You know it's this a lot of.
It is a mental battle.
And can I hold this pose andbreathe and realize that I'm not
going to be here forever andthis is going to be okay?
And those lessons of being ableto be in challenging situations
and remember to breathe andremind yourself that you're okay
(37:48):
.
They translate off of the yogamat too.
I can't tell you how.
That's where the life-changingstuff happens.
It's like, you know, I used tobe the person that would like
freak out if my dishwasher brokeand I'd be like, oh my God, you
know whatever.
And now it's like I'm justgonna breathe.
It's not that big of a deal.
I'm not gonna be in this spaceforever.
We're gonna get over it.
You know.
Do over time.
(38:09):
That ability to be in hardpositions and sweating and
remembering to breathe it doesit, translates off the mat.
That's the whole point.
That's why we do it.
Sam Rhee (38:17):
That's so funny because that's exactly what we
say in CrossFit is you're in atough position, you have to
finish this workout and youdon't think you can, but you
actually, you know, findsomething deep within yourself
and you finish that workout.
That helps translate into reallife situations.
Where you're in difficultsituations, you have to keep
pushing and and it's the samething in yoga, but it's a
(38:37):
different challenge same outcomein terms of pushing your
boundaries, but the boundary interms of, like, pushing to do
three more reps versus holdingthis position and maintaining
your breathing and stayingpresent, and staying in your
mind is mind is actuallyprobably a skill set that would
be super helpful.
(38:58):
that translates out into lifewhere, okay, I have to breathe,
I have to be mindful.
Do not lose my crap right nowabout this.
Like that speaks to me on a lotof levels.
Kristen Fazio (39:11):
That's the part when I say it's changed my life,
that it's changed my life, thatit's changed my life the most.
Sam Rhee (39:15):
And I think you know and you know why, because this
is what reminds me of, like someof the best surgeons I ever saw
in the OR Like if things wentto crap, like there was some
terrible, catastrophic thingthat suddenly happened blood
vessel burst, something,something.
Something like you can't likemuscle your way out of it.
You know that's where themindfulness challenge breathe,
(39:35):
stay within yourself, move tothe next step, don't lose your
crap, sort of this speaks to memore about that in that
situation, like there's certainsituations no, you got to try
harder, you got to push harder,you got to move more, you got to
do whatever.
But there are also situationsand that's one where I could
like really see having this kindof skill set in you be like
(39:57):
okay, because those guys thatthose, those people were able to
move so well, skillfully,without you know, like the head
coming off and get through thatsituation.
Kristen Fazio (40:12):
It's important, yeah, I mean life is not always
going to hand you, you know,like the head coming off and get
through that situation.
It's important, yeah, I meanlife is not always going to hand
you.
You know what you want Right.
You know there's going to be alot of times when stuff's going
to happen that you can't control.
That's exactly right and that'sa big part of yoga is like how
do we weather the storm?
Right, you know we can't, youknow, control the waves, but we
can learn to surf them.
That's exactly right.
Sam Rhee (40:30):
So now, how does somebody fit yoga into like a
CrossFit training schedule?
So if you have an athlete andthey're like you know what, how
do I start yoga?
How do I fit it in Like, whatcan I do here?
It's expensive, crossfit isexpensive, everything's
expensive these days.
What's the best way to kind ofstart this?
Kristen Fazio (40:48):
You know, if you're the kind of person that
likes a schedule right and youdo well when you're on a routine
and a schedule, I would say tofactor in, you know, maybe two
days of CrossFit, one day yoga,two days CrossFit, one day yoga,
if you're able to have thatability to do that and if,
financially, if that's an issue,start with a YouTube video.
You know, like you said, you'renot going to get quite the same
(41:11):
instruction that you would ifyou were going to have a private
lesson.
You know, start with a YouTubevideo, see what it's all about,
try some stretches and thenmaybe you kind of pop into a
class now and again to see whatit feels like to be in a group
setting and instructed by anactual you know person.
You know, it's not the kind ofthing you need to do it every
(41:32):
single day, no-transcript.
(41:59):
If you could get an hour or youknow two in a week of of you
know, uh, more focused you knowtop to bottom full body stretch,
that would be great, yeah.
Sam Rhee (42:10):
I I find that I like your stretch class is great
because you could actually fit aworkout in beforehand and then
do that I can take a hot yogaclass, even if I had a really
hard day.
That like the day before that,taking that yoga class really
like kills me.
It's almost like a full wad init yeah, like I can.
Kristen Fazio (42:35):
I can barely hold any kind of lunge in a in a hot
yoga class because I just feelso wiped so if that's the case,
then I would look for somethingmore like a restorative or a yin
, which, where you're hold it'sa much more passive.
You're pretty much down on theground the whole time in
different postures.
You're holding the stretchesfor longer periods of time.
(42:56):
The only thing I would cautionin those classes in a yin type
class where you're holdingpostures for three to five
minutes, like, say, you're in apigeon pose.
You'd be in a pigeon pose forthree to five minutes.
I would caution against doingthat before any CrossFit
training, because you need that.
Sam Rhee (43:12):
You need that stability in your joint.
Yes, in your joint.
Kristen Fazio (43:15):
You don't want to be hypermobile before, but
that's kind of a nice complimentto something Like a power.
Yoga class is probably not whatyou're looking for after you
had a really intense day.
Sam Rhee (43:29):
But it's perfect if I had a day off and then I want to
come in and do something Likethat will kick my ass to do a
nice vinyasa or hot power, likeyou know, because you go through
all these movements and thenyou keep adding on to these
movements and then you're addingon to these.
It's a layered process and Ilove at the same time, but you
(43:50):
know, because you do get topractice each movement more.
So I feel like, okay, maybe Ican do this one a little bit
better, but then it also getstiring because you keep adding
like more complexity to it.
Yes, and then you see all thesereally good athletes in there
and they're like how are theyholding this like perfectly
every time?
Kristen Fazio (44:06):
That takes time.
That takes time.
They didn't walk in like that.
Trust me.
Sam Rhee (44:17):
So trust me.
So, um, what other uh thoughtsdo you have in terms of these
myths?
So if someone just says youknow what, why do I listen?
I'm listening to this and I'mjust not flexible, like forget
this, like well, I shouldn'teven start, because I just don't
feel like I I could do any ofthis yeah, that's the one I hear
the most when I tell peoplethat I teach yoga.
Kristen Fazio (44:31):
Oh my god, I can't do yoga because I'm not
flexible, and that always makesme laugh, because the whole
point of yoga is to becomeflexible over time.
You don't walk in the doorflexible, right?
Nobody, well, except there aresome pretzels out there that are
like origami and they can foldthemselves in a million shapes.
But the intent is to becomemore flexible through the
practice.
So you know, I would say thatconsistency.
(44:53):
Come and try and see, and witheach passing week you'll notice
more flexibility within yourbody, for sure.
Sam Rhee (45:01):
That's funny because I would throw it out to the
CrossFit athletes, because wehear it all the time.
When we talk about CrossFit,people say I'm not strong enough
, that's too scary, that's toomuch lifting, that's you know,
I'm not built that way.
I'm not strong enough, like Idon't want to do CrossFit.
And so for the CrossFitter whosays the same thing about yoga
well, I'm flipping it back toyou, because that anybody should
(45:23):
do anything seven days a weekor every you know, yeah.
So what do you do forresistance training?
Kristen Fazio (45:36):
So it's funny, I started lifting heavy weights
within the past like two yearsand I've noticed that it's
tremendous for helping my yogapractice.
Sam Rhee (45:44):
Is that right?
Kristen Fazio (45:45):
Yeah, because I'm much stronger in the poses and
I can stabilize more.
Sam Rhee (45:48):
It's not CrossFit, though.
What do you do?
Kristen Fazio (45:49):
It was not CrossFit, I'm just literally
lifting dumbbells.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm justdoing things online like I'm
doing, but I probably need tocome to you.
Sam Rhee (45:57):
You have friends.
I know you have very closefriends and I'm going to get
them to get on you to try it out, and I think that they need to
flip over, and also because Iknow them too, and they need to
actually try it out somewhat too.
Kristen Fazio (46:11):
Yeah, no, a hundred percent.
I mean, there is I.
This is why I think it's such agood balance.
You know, I'm at an age whereeverybody is telling me lift
heavy weights and eat moreprotein.
Sam Rhee (46:19):
Yes, that's the highest thing right now.
Oh, I hear yeah.
Kristen Fazio (46:23):
And you know, those like little three pound
dumbbells aren't aren't going tocut it.
So I really do think that theCrossFit yoga combination is
like a brilliant combination.
You just have to be able topush back past all of the
hangups right on both sides ofit.
Sam Rhee (46:39):
It's so true, there's so much on either side and it's
so diametric in terms of mindsetin some of these things, that
if you can actually expand onboth fronts, you're going to
actually have really, like,helped yourself very
dramatically.
Kristen Fazio (46:52):
Yeah, and I do, they do that One compliments the
other.
I think completely.
Sam Rhee (46:56):
So tell me all right.
So, to sum everything up,everyone should do CrossFit,
everyone should do yoga.
Um, the breath work is reallythe key.
Um, stay within yourself.
Uh, what are the othertakeaways you might want to give
somebody if they're like okay,I'm starting tomorrow, what else
do I need to?
Kristen Fazio (47:13):
know.
Start with an open mindset.
Don't be quick to kind of judgethe practice right away.
Like I said, if you find ateacher that doesn't mesh with
you or a style of yoga thatdoesn't quite feel right,
continue to pursue it, becauseit is incredibly beneficial.
It's been practiced forthousands and thousands of years
and there's a reason it's beenaround for so long.
Be open-minded to the idea ofthe meditation and the breath
(47:38):
work that can take you very,very far.
So what else would I say?
Do a little research in advanceand have fun with it.
Don't take yourself soseriously.
Set the ego aside.
Nobody's looking at you.
The only person that cares inthe room besides you is the
teacher.
And it's a great community.
(48:00):
It's a great place to be.
Yeah.
Sam Rhee (48:03):
It's so funny because I hear you and I hear I could
say the same thing aboutCrossFit.
For all of it, it's a greatcommunity.
Give it a chance.
If you don't find the right gymor the right box, you know,
stay with it.
Stay with it for a while.
I always tell people strive forthree months at least before
you make a decision about it.
Don't take yourself seriously,like you said, just have fun.
Kristen Fazio (48:21):
And listen to your body.
Listen to your body, Don't pushyourself past the you know.
Sam Rhee (48:25):
So all the advice I would be giving people about
CrossFit is the same thing thatyou would be giving for people
in terms of yoga and groupclasses, which, to me, just
makes it.
It validates the fact that youknow this is something that we
should all be trying Like, and Ialso believe like not everyone
is built for CrossFit, buteveryone should try it.
And it's the same thing foryoga.
Everyone may not be truly builtfor yoga, but you should really
(48:48):
try it and if you do engage init and stick with it like it is
not just for the short term butfor longevity purposes
tremendous.
Kristen Fazio (48:58):
That's one thing for sure that I did want to
touch on is like we all want tobe able to get up and down the
stairs and get in and out of thecar without, you know, needing
assistance and walking without awalker.
Walking without a walker, andyou know, over time, you know,
if we don't address the mobilityand the range of motion and all
those issues, we're going tolose that ability right.
So it's really important to getlow on the ground and work
(49:22):
against that resistance.
It's really important to try toget off the ground without
using your hands, and these areall things that we do in a yoga
class, and so longevity is, youknow, the name of the game, I
think, in yoga.
Sam Rhee (49:32):
It's so funny.
I was taking a cab ride back tothe airport in India from my
hotel and I had the talkiestdriver and he was talking about
his 95-year-old dad, who doesyoga by himself every day.
That's the normal practice.
They all learn how to do it inIndia.
They do it in gym class, yes,so you know the fact that his
(49:55):
95-year-old dad is just doing itfor like.
In the morning before breakfasthe gave me the exhaustive
routine and I was like, how doyou learn?
And he's just like what do youmean?
This is what life is.
Life is like you just know it.
Kristen Fazio (50:09):
Yeah Well, they eat on the ground typically and
they, when they're washing theirdishes and stuff, they're, you
know, squatting.
That's like a huge I mean, wedon't squat anymore, that's like
an ancient thing on the Westernculture.
We're always sitting infurniture, we're never sitting
on the ground.
Sam Rhee (50:24):
So I mean, I don't have to eat curry every day.
Kristen Fazio (50:27):
I do love curry.
Sam Rhee (50:39):
But I would say the yoga takeaway that definitely
resonated with me as well.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So thank you so much, kristen.
That was amazing, and so peoplecan reach you at KristenFAZYoga
on Instagram and you coach atVillage Yoga in Glen Rock or
Real Hot in Ridgewood, and whatwas the place?
Powerflow in Clifton Powerflowin Clifton, so check out the
schedule.
If you have any questions aboutyoga and CrossFit, reach out to
(51:01):
us.
Botox and burpees we're happyto pass them along and also, if
you have any other topicssimilar to that you might think
would be helpful for us, let usknow.
Thank you very much.
Kristen Fazio (51:13):
Thank you for having me.
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